Hyderabad:Launched by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2002, June 12 every year marks the World Day Against Child Labour, to focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it.
Protect children from child labour, now more than ever!
This year, World Day Against Child Labour will focus on the impact of crisis on child labour. The ILO said that the COVID-19 health pandemic and the resulting economic and labour market shock are having a huge impact on people's lives, and unfortunately, it is he children who suffer the most.
This year, the World Day will be conducted as a virtual campaign and is being organized jointly with the Global March Against Child Labour and the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture (IPCCLA).
Prevalence of Child Labour Pertinently, 2020 marks 21 years since the adoption of the ILO's Worst Forms of child Labour Convention, 1999. It aims to take necessary and immediate action to eliminate the worst forms of child labour.
COVID-19 impact on Child Labour
According to estimates, the ongoing COVID-19 crisis can push millions of vulnerable children into child labour, ILO said, adding that already, there are an estimated 152 million children in child labour, 72 million of which are in hazardous work.
It said that these children were now at heightened risk of facing circumstances that are even more difficult, and might also face longer working hours.
The ILO said that previous such health situations, like in the case of 2014 when the ebola epidemic was raging, play a large role in forcing more children into child labour.
It added that the most vulnerable groups, like girls, human trafficking victims, and those already in child labour are at the greatest risk, especially in poor countries where they lack social protection and healthcare facilities.
Combating child labour
While the number of children in engaged in labour worldwide has declined by 94 million since 2000, the rate of reduction has alarmingly slowed by two-thirds in recent years.
Target 8.7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals calls for an end to child labour in all its forms by 2025. It calls on global community to take measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking. It also calls to secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.
The international Labour Organisation set an international law on child labour that was signed and ratified by most countries. In 1990, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of a Child which was ratified by 193 countries.
In 1999, the ILO led the Worst Forms Convention, signed by 151 countries, which prohibits the worst forms of child labor such as:
- Debt Bondage
- Child Trafficking
- All forms of Slavery or Slavery-like practices
- Forced Recruitment of Children in Armed Conflict
- Prostitution
- Production of Pornography
- Drug Production and Trafficking
- Any Hazardous Work
